After including the live face filters recently, Instagram has again been updated with a couple of new features. The users can now search the stories in the Explore tab using ‘Location’ or ‘hashtag’. Instagram users can find Location Stories by clicking through a location sticker on someone’s Story or navigating to that location’s Instagram Page. This new feature makes it even more easy to discover new location stories posted by public accounts.
Users will see a new story ring at the top of Explore tab filled with stories happening near by. These stories come from people who have used location stickers on their stories. As mentioned earlier, users can also search for any location around the world, and a story ring for that place will appear at the top of the location page.
Talking about the Hashtag stories, Instagram is also beginning to roll out the hashtag stories on Explore, to help the users find stories related to their interests. When the users search for a hashtag, they will see a story ring at the top of the page filled with other stories using that hashtag.
While posting the stories the users just have to add a location sticker or hashtag to their story which may be further included in the larger story. If the story is added, a line will appear at the top of the stories viewer list showing how many people saw it in the larger story. If the users want to use a location or hashtag sticker but do not wish for their story to appear on Explore, they just need to tap the ‘X’ on their stories viewer list.
As posted by Instagram on their Blog Post, “From discovering new parts of your own city to jogging alongside the #fromwhereirun community all around the world, location and hashtag stories help you share these experiences as they unfold.”
Location stories on Explore are already available on iOS and Android as part of Instagram version 10.22 in the Apple App Store and Google Play whereas the Hashtag stories will be rolling out over the coming weeks.
We’ll keep you updated, stay tuned!